Summary
This paper reports on psychiatric disorder amongst West Indians and Irish-born residents of Camberwell in South London. National figures suggest high rates of severe functional disorders in West Indians with relatively few minor disorders. Among the Irish, however, mania is rare, schizophrenia shows high rates in women but not in men and the milder affective disorders are more common than in the native born (Cochrane 1977). The current study uses both hospital-based data from the Camberwell registrar and data from a community survey and essentially substantiates these findings. It is suggested that these persistent opposing patterns in these two groups of immigrants could be in large part explained by culturally determined patterns of response to adversity.
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Bebbington, P.E., Hurry, J. & Tennant, C. Psychiatric disorders in selected immigrant groups in Camberwell. Soc Psychiatry 16, 43–51 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00578068
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00578068